Category: Politics

  • Watching politics leads to moments of discouragement and the search for hope

    A thread by Andy Rowell

    Virginia Heffernan, PhD in English from Harvard, and TrumpCast podcast host, sincerely wonders in this thread whether those who seem to plot and scheme shamelessly, have any fear that a God might judge them someday.

    Virginia Heffernan

    @page88

     

    Barr has said he doesn’t care about being on the right side of history. Giuliani says his tombstone will say he lied for Trump but who cares bc he’ll be dead. Does their Catholicism not have heaven/hell anymore? Do they as arrogant jerks not even care abt their legacies & obits?

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    Today Trump biographer David Kay Johnston also is disturbed by the brazenness of those who call themselves Christians.

    David Cay Johnston

    @DavidCayJ

     

    Fake Christian gets disgusting support from conman.

    Where are the actual Christian pastors? https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1178477539653771264 

    Donald J. Trump

    @realDonaldTrump

    Replying to @realDonaldTrump

    ….If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews

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    Lawyer Seth Abramson, who has given his life over to attempting to collate and uncover Trump's scheming with foreign leaders also finds himself wondering about whether there is a God who will bring judgement where it is deserved.

    Seth Abramson

    @SethAbramson

     

    Days like this I find myself wishing as a Jew that I believed in hell https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1177343859174596608 

    The Hill

    @thehill

     

    Lindsey Graham on Mueller report findings: I don't care about the obstruction of justice stuff http://hill.cm/uZa3hcP 

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    Seth Abramson

    @SethAbramson

     

    Days like this I find myself wishing as a Jew that I believed in hell https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1177343859174596608 

    The Hill

    @thehill

     

    Lindsey Graham on Mueller report findings: I don't care about the obstruction of justice stuff http://hill.cm/uZa3hcP 

    View image on Twitter
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    Ezra Klein in this conversation with David Brooks in May also wishes for belief in God, that it might provide stability and clarity.

    Ezra Klein

    @ezraklein

     

    I think @NYTDavidBrooks is working towards a critique of capitalism here, even if it’s not coming out that way yet. The problems in values he identifies seem, to me, to be the inevitable effect of capitalism being the way we value people and work. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5nBcLHxbBGUf0JGWSq4w1C 

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    Michael Lewis in his conversation with Ezra Klein in June worries that it may take a catastrophe or a pandemic for many to reject corruption in government.

    1:36:26 (vox.com/podcasts/2019/…)

    The common thread is close observers of Trump being shocked by the willful denial of the truth and the haughty dismissal of moral obligation. Then these observers, marvelling at the depths of human self-delusion, wonder what it would take before some would repent of their ways. But I take comfort that maybe …

    His truth is marching on.

    John Dickerson

    @jdickerson

     

    I don’t recommend it, but skip to min. 5. It’s beautiful and stirs the soul. https://www.instagram.com/tv/B22flHgltzX/?igshid=j1y4zm9q56zk 

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    More angst

    D K Trowbridge@kyletrow
     

    My political theology

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    And others too trying to bring hope:

    Jesus Christ@JesusOfNaz316
     

    Peace be with you.

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    More wondering about whether there is any justice out there in the universe:

    Kelly Magsamen@kellymagsamen
     

    Waking up to this news in Hungary. The universe is mean. https://twitter.com/JoshNBCNews/status/1178815911349964801 

    Josh Lederman

    @JoshNBCNews

     

    Just in: Sebastian Gorka is traveling with @SecPompeo to Europe, @Abs_NBC reports. He was seen getting into a State Department van headed to Joint Base Andrews for departure

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    Again, I would say a lot of these comments by observers of Trump are profound, groaning prayers for justice and that the truth would come out and that God would spare the United States and the world from greater disaster and catastrophe. More asking of big questions about humanity from the author of Traitor: The Case Against Donald J. Trump.

    Again, I think this is the right reaction.

    David Rothkopf

    @djrothkopf

     

    I'm lying in bed unable to sleep, my mind boggled by today's developments…and those of the past three years. I am not sure whether it is the scope of the criminality and abuse and corruption and lies or whether it is the number of GOP leaders who support and defend them.

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    More sincere incredulity prayerfully directed:

    Melissa Moore@MelissaMoore77
     

    I don’t usually like to quote-tweet but dear God these days are something else. I’m sitting here trying to take in these southern baptist pastors doubling down in their support of Donald Trump & I am dizzy w/ anger. https://twitter.com/jackngraham/status/1178645825683148800 

    Jack Graham

    @jackngraham

     

    When it’s all said and done in this current political attack from the leftists socialists,,,,,,God rules over the affairs of man and government. Who is on the Lord’s side?

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    More wrestling with evil:

    D.L. Mayfield@d_l_mayfield

    Evil. Nothing else to say here. https://twitter.com/juliehdavis/status/1179157882937528323 

    Julie Davis

    @juliehdavis

     

    He talked about a snake-filled trench & other painful countermeasures for his border wall. He asked if migrants could be shot in the legs. He purged aides who resisted. A look at Trump's border obsession, adapted from my book with @shearm, out next week. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html 

    D.L. Mayfield@d_l_mayfield
     

    How are we not depressed all the time? I would say I am 50% of the day at least, oftentimes berating myself for it. But you know what? Our world is running on evil, I am allowed to be depressed about that.

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  • Sept 19-20 What issues evangelicals care about

     

     
     

     
    Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
     
    @ameliatd

     
    Replying to

    It seems low to me as well. But another way to read that finding is also that of all those issues, white evangelicals were most likely to say abortion/reproductive rights was a dealbreaker. 14% for abortion, 12% for immigration, less than 10% for everything else.
     
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    Samuel Perry
     
    @socofthesacred

     
    I always show my students this one from Pew, taken summer before the election. For all the talk about abortion & supreme court justices, abortion didn't even crack the top 10 for white evangelicals in terms of "very important" issues determining their presidential vote.
     
     

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    Jesse Curtis
     
    @jncthehistorian

     
    Abortion: a deal-breaker for 14% of white evangelicals. a rhetorical tool for 100% of white evangelicals when defending their Trump vote.
     
     

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  • On big government

    Andy Rowell
     
    @AndyRowell

     
    On "big government" Both Democrats and Republicans should be wary of government bureaucracy. Indeed, huge government programs can be inefficient or totalitarian. But Republicans should be just as passionate and practical about addressing injustice and the needs of the vulnerable.